The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a 17-year plan to reduce pollution. According to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), plastic pollution could be reduced by 80% by 2040. This ambitious goal depends on significant policy changes and the implementation of existing technologies in the production, use, and disposal of plastic.

What would need to change in our daily lives to achieve this?

It is necessary to create a greater number of refill points and deposit return schemes. To reduce the scale of this problem, the report proposes to “eliminate problematic and unnecessary plastic”.

Promoting refillable bottles, bulk dispensers, deposit return systems, and packaging take-back schemes could help reduce plastic pollution by 30%, claims UNEP.

It calls on governments to make these approaches more attractive to businesses. In this way, the refill point approach could become more widespread.

Many European countries already operate deposit return schemes that allow consumers to get money back if they return items such as plastic bottles for recycling. The United Kingdom recently announced that it will introduce such a system in 2025.

Recycling could become easier and more efficient

UNEP also points out that recycling must become more stable and cost-effective. It proposes abolishing fossil fuel subsidies and introducing design guidelines to make products easier to recycle.

This could facilitate the recycling of everyday plastic packaging at home and reduce plastic pollution by 20-50%.

It would be even better to replace plastic packaging with alternative materials, such as paper. This could reduce plastic pollution by a further 17%.

Would reducing plastic waste help save money?

Transitioning to a circular economy in the plastics sector would allow for savings of almost 1.8 trillion euros, taking into account the costs and revenues from recycling, states UNEP.

In turn, the additional benefits in terms of health, climate, air pollution, marine ecosystems, and litigation-related costs would be even greater – more than 3 trillion euros, claims UNEP.

According to UNEP data, this transition could also create 700,000 jobs by 2040.

The costs of implementing circular schemes could be placed on producers through taxes, by diverting investments intended for plastic production, and by requiring them to fund the collection, recycling, and responsible disposal of plastic.

The UNEP report was prepared ahead of negotiations in Paris between 29 May and 2 June, where countries will discuss an international treaty aimed at addressing the problem of plastic waste. The report warns that a five-year delay in concrete action could lead to an increase in plastic pollution of 80 million tonnes by 2040.

What will happen to the remaining plastic waste?

According to UNEP data, even if such a reduction is achieved, there will still be 100 million tonnes of single-use plastic waste per year.

The UN proposes setting and implementing design and safety standards for the disposal of non-recyclable plastic waste. Furthermore, producers should be held responsible for products that release toxic microplastics, and other regulations should be introduced.

However, several environmental activists have criticised UNEP for promoting the practice of incinerating polluting plastic waste, reports the news agency Reuters.